Background

Some are lucky enough to know at an early age what they want to be when they grow up. Others like myself, find out about our passions and callings through a process of trial and error. At the start of my career, I was called upon to perform a wide variety of tasks from management to sales to customer service. After 5 years, I began to understand more about what I liked to do vs. what I didn't and also what I was good at and not so good at. In reflecting on the jobs I'd held, I realized I found the most satisfaction in working with people and helping them enhance their performance. I thrived on helping others with their professional development and excelled at teaching and training. With this understanding, I began a more focused career path in the field of workplace learning and development. Rather than continue to learn through on-the job training, I began to look for a formal educational program.

Educational technology called out to me from the beginning because it encompassed all the elements I felt a professional in today's field of training and development should have; a solid grasp of educational theory coupled with the skill set to deliver a learning system best suited for the modern learner. Through my graduate studies, I've developed the technical skills I expected but I've also gained invaluable knowledge about collaborative learning, using technology as a method for communication, building camaraderie in a virtual environment and constructing learning programs to maximize knowledge transfer. In this reflection I hope to share educational theories and concepts that have significantly impacted my experience in the LSDD program and shape the way I now create learning environments for others.

Constructivism – Active Learning

Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning theory states that people tend to remember 10% of what we read and 20% of what we hear but we remember 90% of what we say and do (Dale, 1969). As a trainer I consistently get feedback telling me that the hands on, activity based portion of class was the most beneficial. I have also found this to be true in my own studies.

Rather than a comprehensive exam of concepts taught, each course culminated in a meaningful project that required me to utilize all the skills that I learned. According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, “students need regular opportunities to do more than memorize what teachers and books tell them. For deep learning to occur, students need to deal with information and experience and put it together to make meaningful sense” (NCREL, n.d.). Not only was I able to take individual concepts and construct them into finished product I found that I was able to take what I had learned and immediately apply them in the real world.

Structured process for curriculum development

Prior to my enrollment in the LSDD program, I was designing training courses without any plan or understanding of a structured process. I found myself creating programs based on what I liked in the classroom instead of thinking about how to best sequence learning and learning activities to maximize knowledge transference. Learning about Instructional Design models such as ADDIE (Smith and Ragan, 2005) and Backward Design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005) transformed the way I looked at my professional body of work.

In his paper comparing informed vs beginning designers, Crismond (n.d.) lists key elements of an “informed designer” including:

Awareness of such concepts allowed me to think strategically about what type of designer I was and how I wanted to evolve. Rather than design elements being an afterthought I learned to structure them in a thoughtful, deliberate manner using strategies that can be backed up with reason and logic. Every course I've designed since have been well thought out in both the pre-design phase up through the assessment.

ADDIE

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discovery learning

Cognitive theorist Jerome Bruner believed that students are more likely to remember concepts they discover on their own. This view point rings very true for me. Some of my most meaningful learnings have come out of my own research into how to solve a problem. Specifically, I recall spending hours researching .aspx and ActionScript codes to make my programs work. Despite the frustration, I can honestly say that I learned more through problem solving than I did by reading the book and following constructed examples. Not only did I feel I learned above and beyond the minimum, there was and still is a great sense of pride for what I accomplished. It is this sense of pride that I'd like the learners I work with to walk away feeling. If Edgar Dale says we remember 90% of what we say and do, I believe that we remember 100% of how something made us feel.

collaborative learning

Collaborative learning was a theme that was present in all of my courses. I strongly feel that this element enabled me to grasp concepts and connect the dots faster and aided in content retention. It has been shown that “collaborative learning resulted in more higher level reasoning, more frequent generation of new ideals and solutions and greater transfer of what is learned within one situation to another than did competitive or individualistic learning” (Roger T. & David Johnson, 2007).

Many assignments completed for the LSDD track were done in small groups, usually determined by our instructor. In groups where I was unfamiliar with or not as skilled in the topic(s), my teammates took time to provide alternative examples or explanations to ensure I got up to speed. Other times, I took on the role of mentor to ensure my group was able to successfully accomplish our tasks. In this position, I felt that my ability to help others strengthened my own understanding of the material. This phenomenon is referred to as positive interdependence. Positive interdependence is rooted in the idea that each member of a group contributes to the community and that individuals succeed only when the group succeeds (Johnson & Johnson, 1994). Positive interdependence is one key element that I believe helps make collaborative learning so successful.

Even when assignments were designed to be completed on your own , I still relied on my classmates to fulfill a large part of my learning process. In fact, I learned just as much, if not more, from others as I did through required readings. The discussion boards through Sakai were invaluable to me and I used them frequently to bounce ideas off of people, get feedback for assignments and learn from other's experiences. Despite not seeing each other face to face, I felt great camaraderie and sense of responsibility for helping each other accomplish our collective goals. The social element is a big factor in why collaborative learning was so powerful for me. My experience is supported by educators who have found a positive relationship between social interaction and learning performance and satisfaction; “Once positive affective relationships and a sense of community have been established, enhanced task accomplishment may be achieved (Kreijins et. al, 2002)

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technology as a binding thread

One of the reasons I choose Educational Technology as a course of study is my belief in the future of blending technology into everyone's learning experience. My first introduction to technology enhanced learning was through e-learning courses taken at work. Though they did the job of providing needed information, they were little more than powerpoint converted presentations accessed via the web. I knew that technology could be much more than just a forum for information sharing. The LSDD program has taught me that technology can be a vehicle for transforming the learning experience beyond a place where one goes to recieve knowledge passively.

For one, simply putting coursework online does not create a meaningful experience for the learner. Through my development work it became clear that the type of information available is just as important as how you present it and how the learner interacts with it. A flashy site loaded with animation and an encylcopedia's worth of of information does no good if the learner doesn't intuitively know how to navigate and sift through all the bells and whistles. Armed with my new knowledge and skills of designing and developing technology enhanced course work I feel confident that I can create lessons that are engaging as well as informational.

Another aspect of technology that has been incredibly important for me is how it is used as a vehicle for communication and collaboration. Since I am geographically separated from my peers, I relied on forums and chat rooms to build relationships and complete projects. In addition to the Sakai and Blackboard discussion threads, I have discovered the use of tools such as wikis and Google Docs that allowed me and my classmates to converse asynchronously and complete our group work. These tools increased my accountability because contributions were visible and trackable. I felt the transparency increased the quality and quantity of work I produced. There was a strong connections to my peers and I believe we did a great job of building a community. As I mentioned above, collaborative learning was a big part of my experience in the LSDD program and it would not have happened without the technology to allow for us to build relationships and engage in discourse with one another.

the road ahead

As I near the completion of the LSDD program I'm actively thinking about what my next steps will be. For the moment I'm content with my current career path in workplace learning and development for the healthcare industry. Though I have been doing mainly instructor led training and facilitation, I get the most satisfaction out of instructional design because this is where I feel I can be creative and utilize my problem solving abilities. My desire is to continue to practice the skills I've gained and become an expert in designing blended learning programs.

Having only taught in the corporate world, I have an interest in experiencing teaching in the academic sense. Specifically I would like to explore the possibility of teaching online. Not only have my own experiences as a distance learning student been positive, the implications of being able to impact many people cross regionally greatly motivates me.

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references

Bruner, J.S. (1967). On knowing: Essays for the left hand. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Crismond, D. (n.d.). Contrasting Strategies of Beginning and Informed Designers: One Representation of Learning Progressions in Engineering Design

Dale, E. (1969). Audio-Visual Methods in Teaching, Third Edition. Holt, Rinehart and Winston

Johnson, R.T., & Johnson, D.W. (1994). An Overview of Cooperative Learning. Originally published in Thousand, A. Villa and A. Nevin (Eds), Creativity and Collaborative Learning; Brookes Press

Kreijins, K et al. (2002). The Sociability of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

NCREL- North Regional Educational Laboratory (n.d), Constructivist View of Learning, [Online document]. Available: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at7lk6.htm

Smith, P. & Ragain T. (2005). Instructional Design, Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe J. (2005). Understanding by Design. Pearson Education, Inc.